Difference between revisions of "Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 19:24, 7 January 2022

Everywhere in the world women live longer than men - but this was not always the case. The available data from rich countries shows that women didn't live longer than men in the 19th century. Why do women live so longer than men in the present and how have these advantages gotten bigger over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach an informed conclusion. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, However, we're not sure how much the influence to each of these variables is.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complex. For example, زيوت تطويل الشعر there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for survivors, ended up raising women's longevity disproportionately.

Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. As you can see, زيوت تطويل الشعر all countries are above the diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart shows that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is less than half an hour.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries as compared to the present.
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the male and female life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. and women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is an increasing gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be very small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

When you click on the option "Change country' on the chart, you will be able to verify that these two points are also applicable to other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.